(Washington) The elected representatives of the American Congress are preparing to leave Washington for two weeks without having voted on new aid for Ukraine, whose army is cruelly lacking in ammunition in the face of Russian troops.
During a press conference on Wednesday, the leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, mentioned several scenarios under study to progress on this burning issue, such as the idea of a loan to Kyiv rather than a check or the use of frozen assets of Russian oligarchs.
Everything except the $60 billion envelope already approved by senators from both sides and demanded for months by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Mike Johnson, a Donald Trump loyalist, categorically refuses to allow this bill to be examined, citing a host of reasons to justify it.
“We are considering a certain number of avenues” instead, he said on Wednesday, without putting forward any timetable or providing details on these avenues.
At the end of the week, the parliamentarians of the House and the Senate will therefore leave the American federal capital, for two weeks of work in their constituencies, without having validated new funds.
They will not return to Washington until April 8.
” Critical ”
Mike Johnson “must stop wasting our time with imaginary scenarios debated between Republicans but which never come to fruition”, assured AFP the influential elected Democrat Adam Smith. “The longer it takes, the more Ukrainian victims there will be.”
By far the primary military support for Ukraine, the United States has not sent a large envelope to Kyiv since December 2022.
A rapid decision by Congress on the release of aid to Ukraine is of “critical importance,” President Volodymyr Zelensky argued on Monday.
The Ukrainian leader has made numerous trips to Washington in recent months, so far in vain.
Exhausted by two years of Russian invasion, Ukraine is struggling against the Russian army, superior in number of soldiers and quantities of weapons and ammunition. In recent weeks, Russian troops have advanced into several sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.
“American aid will arrive,” nevertheless estimated Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba.
“It’s about having confidence in the ability of the United States to support countries that respect the same rules and principles that the United States defends around the world, it’s much broader than just Ukraine” , he argued.
Standoff between Trump and Biden
Ukraine does not rule out the idea, proposed by Donald Trump, of providing this assistance in the form of loans rather than donations, but says it needs more details.
The former president, candidate in the November election, is in fact opposed to the validation of new funds for Kyiv, believing that the United States should “stop giving money without hoping to be reimbursed”.
He claims that if elected again, he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours” – without really explaining how.
Democratic President Joe Biden, candidate for re-election, again asked the American Congress, during a solemn speech on March 7, to release this envelope.
In the middle of an election year, the issue has transformed into a real standoff between the two candidates, who will face each other on November 5.